1. Field of Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate in general to network management technology. More specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for creating Management Information Base (MIB) specifications.
2. Description of the Background Art
With the advent of exchange of management information between network devices, there has been a tremendous growth in the area of network management technology. For example, the network devices include routers, gateways, and switches. One such network management technology is a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). The SNMP is an application layer protocol that facilitates the exchange of management information between the networked devices. The SNMP uses a logical database of network management information. Such a logical database is often referred to as a Management Information Base (MIB). Management applications can use SNMP to access the MIB for managing the network performance, detecting and solving the network problems, and planning for the network growth.
One fundamental problem with the MIB is defining MIB specifications or a schema. The MIB includes various MIB objects. The MIB is a conceptual database and the queries are addressed through Object Identifiers (OIDs). The MIB includes various MIB objects. The MIB objects are addressed using the OIDs. Further, there are instances of MIB object types, which are specified using a specification language. The specification language or metaschema for SNMP MIB is referred to as Structure of Management Information (SMI). For example, Structure of Management Information version 1 (SMIv1) or a Structure of Management Information version 2 (SMIv2). The SMI defines MIB object types that can be accessed, inspected, and altered through operations of the SNMP protocol.
According to one of the conventional methods, a graphical environment is used for creating the MIB specifications. For example, the user can enter various artifacts through a series of pop-up windows. However, this method is more suitable for MIB experts than for actual MIB developers. This is because the conventional methods do not provide guidelines to the user for creating the MIB specifications. Further, the conventional methods do not facilitate additional support in entering the artifacts. Furthermore, conventional methods do not facilitate creation of the MIB specifications, depending on the earlier user input.
In addition, the user may not be aware of many guidelines and best practices that are available for creating the MIB specifications. The conventional methods do not also guide the user to create syntactically and semantically correct MIB specifications that conform to the best practices.